We’re constantly seeing comparisons made between Facebook, Friendfeed, Twitter, and various other networks, sometimes these comparisons are valid. The reasons to use these different services collectively, is because the environments are different. These environmental factors describe the type of interaction people use and receive from the service.
The past few months have been like a riptide for me, every time I pop back above the surface I’m further out, and getting pushed right back under. I’ve lost friends, I’ve somehow managed to walk away from death, and I’ve lost my job. The thing is in life those things matter, but they happened in the past, they will effect how I act in the future, but I shouldn’t have to wait for these to occur to figure out I needed to change.
Continue reading
Yes, the blog has become stagnant and has had only 2 posts in 3 months, and I understand the concerns this raises. I had a close relative die at the beginning of May and spiraled into a comfortably numb state that I didn’t feel like nor was able to come out of it for a few weeks. As I worked my way out of this depression I began interacting and having meaningful conversations over on Friendfeed and began a lot of my time there. By Mid-July, I was nearly back to normal(as close as can be expected) and had begin writing a few posts again and had planned to start posting again at the beginning of the month. Unfortunately, I lost a friend on the 26th and fell back into the depression and haven’t really felt like finishing a lot of the drafts I have sitting around.
I’ll begin posting regularly on Monday, August 17th and as of right now I’m going to be posting every Monday. Currently, I have enough to last a little over 2 months, but I will be adding more time sensitive material along the course. I also plan an update to the site, which will come with a more frequent feed of interesting stories, images, and videos separate from the main feed. For right now, I just want to let you know that I will be back posting on a regular basis, along with some irregularly scheduled content.
*Recommend some content for me to write about in the comments or through my contact page. I’ll look into whatever topics you want me to discuss and this will make it a little easier for me to get back up to speed with content.Disclaimer: What I’m about to go into while simple it is an unethical practice. You may very well end up violating FriendFeed’s TOS or possibly the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA)
Today, the folks at FriendFeed unveiled a new addition to their service, file sharing. Though they say that they have only supported a few file types at this time, they don’t offer any video support and you can only share up to 3 .mp3’s within a 24 hour period. The only other current restriction appears to be that you have an undisclosed cap on how much you can share, this is also set on a revolving 24 hour period.
However, as soon as I found out I instantly though of file type obfuscation, in which you pass a file off as a different type. This allows you to share any type of media across the service, including video, and allowing you to beat the “.mp3” quota.
In order to slip through FriendFeed’s monitoring you just have to select the file and rename it from “FileName.xxx”,(Note: “.xxx” could be a “.mp3”, “.mp4”, “.avi”, or any other file type) to “FileName.pdf”. Upload the “.pdf” to FriendFeed, and leave a note for others to change it back into the correct file type, once they download it on their side.
*Rough post and unlikely to be modified do to the time, and realizing I don’t have the answer. This is a set of recent realizations, some personal, in their rough form, take of it what you will.
Time is itself immutable, and, yet, it is the essence of all mutability
Last week, I spent time with family after the loss of my cousin. Over the week I spent time with relatives and family friends talking about memories and all the time we have sacrificed without a second thought. One of the conversations was with my aunt, about my relationship to my estranged father and how there isn’t much time left. I’m still not sure what I’m doing with my life, but this past week has been a wake up call, I need to get rid of all the hindrances in it that are wasting time.
Time is the stitching that holds billions of scattered, unconnected, snapshots together to create the ever rippling fabric of life.
The single reason for wasting time, accidents and traffic not withstanding, is our throwing mental barriers up to avoid certain situations or people. I noticed this after talking with my aunt about my dad. The only reason I’m estranged from him is because of my half-siblings, his wife, and the way she treats him. I can’t stand them so I avoid them, along with him, unfortunately, I care about him and know all to well the this recent funeral could have easily been his. I’ve seen him maybe two hours in total since New Year ’08 and that’s not enough time to spend with someone you care about, no matter how you feel about them or the people they surround themselves with. I still haven’t figured out what I’m going to do to repair this situation, but I don’t have much time because noone expects another 5 years out of him.
“Truly successful decision making relies on a balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking.” ~ Malcolm Gladwell
I notice myself being less and less reliable on listening to my instinct and find my self deliberating on things far to much. I think we all need a good kick in the ass to get us to realize we don’t have time to waste analyzing all the data, it just takes to long. We have to learn when we come across a sunk cost and how to keep from wasting anymore time on it. I think I’m just going to stop thinking about stuff.
“Time is like money.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
This is the truth and the fact is that you can spend both rationally, or you can waste them on frivolous affairs. The best form of management with either is to think ahead and budget how you’re going to use them, but always remember to leave a little extra for fun and pleasurable things. The one major difference between the two is that you can always earn more money without spending it, but with time your always spending it and your never going to get more.
The best way to get more out of life is too enjoy the time you have.
Since October 10th, I’ve been using Twitter to try and lift people up, after the large amount of fear being spread by the media. As of right now I’m putting this idea in the freeze, as I’ve just begun copying and pasting and not thinking. This is the last of them but if you’d like to follow me for when I do randomly spit one out, you can find me at @jimminy. Also if, you’d like a great resource that I used for several months, Habit Is A Cable…
“Our life is frittered away by detail … simplify, simplify.’ ~ Henry David Thoreau
“The value of an idea lies in the using of it.” ~ Thomas Edison
“For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.” ~ Vincent van Gogh
“A true friend sees the good in everything, and brings out the best in the worst of things.” ~ Sasha Azevedo
“All that we are is the result of what we have thought.” ~ Buddha
“It just seems natural. You and me against the world.” ~ Chuck Palahniuk
“Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error.” ~ Cicero
“The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.” ~ W. M. Lewis
“All love that has not friendship for its base, is like a mansion built upon the sand.” ~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox
“The mind is like the stomach. It’s not how much you put into it, but how much it digests.” ~ Albert Jay Nock
“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” ~ Steve Jobs
“Thought makes the whole dignity of man; therefore endeavor to think well, that is the only morality.” ~ Blaise Pascal
“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.” ~ Douglas Adams
“Having wonderful people in your life is the ONLY oxygen we need” ~Gary Vaynerchuk
“I know what I have given you. I do not know what you have received” ~ Antonio Porchia
“Don’t walk in front of me I may not follow. Don’t walk behind me I may not lead. Just walk beside me and be my friend.” ~ Albert Camus
“All of life is a risk; in fact we’re not going to get out alive. Casualness leads to casualties. Communication is the ability to affect other people with words.” ~ Jim Rohn
“The law of love could be best understood and learned through little children” ~ Mahatma Gandhi
“Economy is half the battle of life. It is not so hard to earn money as to spend it well.” ~ Charles H. Spurgeon
“Don’t be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends we choose.” ~ Tennessee Williams
No one is too small to make a difference, they just might be too small to do it by themselves. If you can get a few big dogs in to help you out that’s great, but the problem with them is that they can’t be everywhere and help you all the time, look for someone smaller. Turn to the rats to help you out, they are plentiful and will be eager to help you for next to nothing as long as you provide something that makes them happy.
That was the realization I had watching Wanted, when Wesley releases the rats into the mill. He provides them with peanut butter, albeit laced with gasoline, in order to have them help in his mission. Several dozen dogs couldn’t have presented him with the return that he received for the hundreds of rats that went out to return his favor. So maybe you should follow his lead and seek the little guys that want you to help them out, not the big guys that you want help from. How do you think they got big, they helped the little guy out, and he let his friends know about it.
Look at how the successful social-networks grew. They all start with a small focused market, Myspace with Musicians, Facebook with College Students, Twitter with texting and the Early Adopter. Each of these small markets had one huge thing in common, they were set in a location where they could expand to the general population, Myspace to fans, Facebook to older Alum and the general public, Twitter to marketers and people looking for an audience. Then they expanded to the mainstream audiences through word of mouth and the necessity for people to have friends on the network to interact with.
They did 3 things and they did them well.
Far too many people have the wrong perspective. They seek to become a giant by standing on the shoulders of other giants, rather than building a self sufficient community that helps each other rise up to the sky. I’m going to show you a perspective variation of the King’s Chessboard, a parable in which a king offers a peasant a payment for his services, the peasant simply asks that the king give him double the amount of rice that he gave the day before, until he has covered each square on a chessboard, starting with one grain of rice. The king soon realizes that he can’t honor this payment as it’s too much for the kingdoms granary.
In my variation, I’ll have the king offering 2 different rewards to the peasant, he can receive 1 billion grains of rice each day until each square has been covered, or he can take the option from the original story of 1 grain of rice and have it doubled everyday for each square. Most people would be blinded by the large sum that they are told they will receive each day and wouldn’t quantify the fact they will actually lose a large sum by taking the larger initial choice. In fact, you will receive only ~.0000007% of the total had they chosen the doubling.
So remember, sometimes it’s better to go with the small people and to take time for the little things in life. They will pay off much more in the long term than always trying to do something that involves the major points in of focus. Take your time and if someone needs help don’t be greedy go and help them you never know the power to change your life they might have.